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A Novel
by Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes
An atmospheric, mesmerizing novel following one woman's return to her small town, and the secrets of its haunted past, perfect for fans of Liz Moore and Samantha Schweblin.
Alma Figueroa is the first person to see a girl in white. Later, more people will claim to have seen the girls: in the snow, in the woods, in the middle of roads. The girls don't speak, and they don't match any of the files for the young women who have been disappearing from Brewer, Wisconsin, for years. Rumors quickly spread that these girls aren't entirely real, that they are dangerous. But Alma knows what she saw, and she begins investigating.
Back in high school, Alma's sister, Kayla, was a girl who disappeared, into an addiction that claimed her life. After that, Alma vowed she would never return to Brewer, but the town has always pulled her back. She fell in love with her husband here, until the darkness of their shared history overwhelmed them. As Alma's investigation deepens, she begins to uncover secrets the community has been ignoring for too long. These secrets might be able to explain Kayla's death and Alma's heartbreak―if Alma can figure out what the girls are trying to tell her in time.
Shatteringly beautiful and bracing, raw with grief and love, Clear Water is the story of a woman undone, who is still determined to avenge her losses. Seamlessly interweaving mystery, noir, myth, and horror, this singular novel is a tour de force and a warning: the lost girls of Brewer will not be forgotten.
"Clear Water is darkly stunning, a heartbreaking entry into the genre of literary mysteries. Fuentes' lyrical prose wraps around the story of a family, and a larger story of a community that feels all too familiar." ―Vera Kurian, author of A Step Past Darkness
"Clear Water is a tense and tender novel that dares to think what to do with the monsters knocking at our door." ―Yuri Herrera, author of Season of the Swamp
This information about Clear Water was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes is the author of The Sleeping World and Are We Ever Our Own. She has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay Artists in Residency, Yaddo, the Millay Colony, Lighthouse Works, and the Blue Mountain Center. She holds a BA from Brown University, an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a PhD from the University of Georgia. She is an associate professor at the University of Maryland. She lives in Maryland with her family.
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